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The Long and Short of Terrorism and Security
by Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.
In 1998, I said that if the lies about the causes of terrorism go unchallenged, then the terror war now unleashed will likely continue until it destroys us. We are not the target of terrorists because we practice freedom, democracy, and human rights, but because our government denies these to people in the Third World whose resources are coveted by our multinational corporations.
Now the World Trade Center is gone. The Pentagon is damaged. And thousands of Americans have died. Almost every TV pundit is crying for massive military retaliation. It’s tempting to agree. I have no sympathy for those who murdered our people. If I were recalled to active duty, I would go in a heartbeat. At the same time, all my military experience and knowledge tells me that retaliation hasn’t rid us of the problem in the past, and won’t this time. If retaliation worked, Israelis would be the world’s most secure people.
We must make our people secure, and that requires both long and short-term approaches. The short-term problem is to protect the American people from the terrorists who already hate us. The long-term problem is to stop making more people hate us, so that the terrorist threat can one day go away.
The short-term problem is largely one of internal security. We must try to make it very difficult for terrorists to succeed at causing such massive damage again.
To put all of the emphasis on the airlines would be a mistake. Pilots in the past were trained to cooperate with terrorists and negotiate after landing. Never again. They will not allow hijackers to take control. Terrorists realize that this was a one-time deal. They will never try it again.
But they will try other things. Smuggle bombs onto a cruise liner? Nukes on light aircraft? Sabotage a football stadium with a hundred thousand people in it? Poison water supplies? Who knows what else? We need a "red team" to think like terrorists and come up with possible scenarios so that they can be neutralized before they happen — not after.
Improve intelligence (not CIA dirty tricks). Implement computerized tracking of aliens on temporary visas. Freeze terrorist finances. Dismantle their network. But security will never be perfect in a free society. The long-term solution is to stop making new terrorists and render current ones impotent.
Only one thing has ever ended a terrorist campaign -- denying the terrorist organization the support of the larger community it represents. And the only way to do that is to listen to and alleviate the legitimate grievances of the people.
A massive military retaliation causing the deaths of thousands of Arabs is the worst possible thing we could do. It would only guarantee an endless supply of fresh terrorists for decades to come. We can have security, or we can have revenge. We cannot have both.
If indeed we can prove the guilt of Osama bin Laden or others, we should indict them as common criminals. This would be supported by the vast majority of the world’s Muslims.
We should also ask Muslim clerics around the world to condemn terrorist acts as contrary to the true Islamic faith (which they are). Just as the pacifist religion of Jesus was twisted by Christians to support Crusades and wars, so too has Islam been twisted by fundamentalist militaristic Muslims with their own political agenda. But the Jihad no more represents true Islam than the Salem Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition represent true Christianity.
We must raise federal mileage standards for SUVs. Promote gas/electric hybrids. Subsidize solar and wind energy. Then adopt foreign policies toward the Middle East less obnoxious to the people of the region (and less dangerous to the people of America!). Withdraw financial and military support of Israel until they abandon the settlements in occupied territory and return to 1967 borders. (The Israelis on our Advisory Board oppose the mistreatment of Palestinians by the current government of Israel.)
Allow Arab countries to have leaders of their own choosing, not hand-picked, CIA-installed dictators willing to cooperate with Western oil companies. Institute a Marshall Plan for development of the region. It would be less costly than the war currently being planned, and certainly less costly than the events of September 11th. Use the UN and World Court to hear grievances, and then do something about them. This will isolate the terrorists from the larger Arab community and cause terrorism to slowly die out.
If we want security, we must pay attention to both the long and short of it.
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